Reese Diggs

The 1934 Washington Senators, defending American League champions, were out of the playoff race by August after being decimated by injuries. Thus, team owner Clark Griffith was willing to take a chance on Reese Diggs, a hard-throwing 18-year-old who caught the eye of one of his scouts while pitching on the sandlots of Baltimore. Starved for pitching, the team immediately tossed Diggs into action. The young hurler appeared in four games, three of them starts, and faced the likes of Hank Greenberg, Earl Averill, Jimmie Foxx, and Lou Gehrig. On September 17, 1934, Diggs received 13 runs of support and threw a complete game versus the Cleveland Indians for his only career victory.

Reese Wilson Diggs was born on September 22, 1915, in Mathews, Virginia. He was the youngest of nine children born to James Garrett and Mary Ellen (Adams) Diggs. The family lived on Gwynn Island, a small body of land on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula where the Piankatank River flows into Chesapeake Bay. James Garrett Diggs worked as a fisherman.1

By age 16, the right-handed Reese was pitching for Edgecombe Athletic Club, an amateur team in Baltimore. He hurled for Edgecombe during the summers of 1932-34 and for a time attended Baltimore City College. Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria saw him pitch, and in late August of 1934 Diggs worked out in front of the team’s brass at Griffith Stadium. Griffith signed Diggs to a contract and added him to the team as a batting practice pitcher. Before long, the pitching-thin Senators, with 40-year-old Alex McColl as their only available bullpen arm, added Diggs to the active roster.2

Al Schacht, filling in as Washington’s skipper in place of player-manager Joe Cronin, who was away from the team because of a fractured wrist, shared his assessment of Diggs: “That kid has the fastest ball on the squad. No foolin’. He can burn ’em over. We’ve had him work on his curve, too, and it ain’t bad, ain’t bad. The main trouble with Diggs is that he is a little wild. Anyway, he is in batting practice. But he claims he can do better with a catcher behind him and I guess he can. He’s gonna get a chance soon, anyway. I think he’s got the stuff.”3

Indeed, Diggs got his chance, making his major-league debut on September 15 in Detroit. The first-place Tigers feasted on Washington starter Jack Russell. With the Senators down 8-2 in the fifth inning, Diggs was called upon with two outs and runners on first and third. The rookie was put to the test immediately as two future Hall of Famers were next up in the Tigers lineup. Charlie Gehringer singled to score a run and Hank Greenberg walked to load the bases. Marv Owen then singled to center field, and the ball went through the legs of John Stone to clear the bases and make it a 12-2 game.4 Diggs recorded his first out by inducing a fly out off the bat of Goose Goslin, another player who would be enshrined in Cooperstown, to end the inning.

Diggs held the dangerous Detroit lineup scoreless through the final three innings, allowing only two hits and a walk. He retired Greenberg the next time up. One reporter wrote that Diggs’ windup resembled “that of a fan dancer without fans.”5 Another later compared his delivery to that of Dizzy Dean: “He is loose-jointed and snaps his wrist as he winds up. Then, just as he lets the ball go, he snaps an ankle of his highly raised left foot right in the batter’s face.”6 Tall and wiry, Diggs stood 6-feet-2 and weighed 180 pounds.

Cronin, back with the team, was impressed by Diggs and named him his starting pitcher just two days later versus the Cleveland Indians. Diggs was opposed by Oral Hildebrand in the opening tilt of a five-game series. A paltry crowd of 298 gathered at League Park to see the Monday afternoon affair.7 The Senators’ bats were alive early, aided by two errors, and Diggs was given a five-run cushion before he threw his first pitch. Washington added another run in the second inning to knock out Hildebrand.

Diggs, described in Washington’s Evening Star as “raw as they come and utterly lacking in slab form,” held Cleveland scoreless through the first two innings.8 The Indians plated their first run of the game in the third inning. Relief pitcher Bob Weiland hit a line drive over the shortstop that plugged the gap of League Park’s spacious outfield for an inside-the-park home run. The Senators continued their hit parade and added five more runs of support for Diggs. Protecting an 11-1 lead, the rookie gave up a three-run home run to Earl Averill in the fifth inning. All three runs were unearned, however, after a catcher’s-interference call had extended the inning. Diggs, who walked seven in the game, pitched around bases on balls in the next two innings and managed to escape without further damage.

At bat, Diggs was 1-for-4 in the game. He singled off Cleveland reliever Clint Brown in the eighth inning. In the ninth inning, Averill tripled off the right-field wall – just 290 feet from home plate and 40-feet tall – to drive in Milt Galatzer.9 Averill then scored on a double by Joe Vosmik. Diggs closed out the inning to earn the complete-game 13-6 victory. “Why, I didn’t even have my fast ball,” he said. “Anyway, look at the way our team batted in runs. I guess I could win in this league if they’d always hit that way.”10

Diggs got another starting assignment a week later in the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics. He exhibited better control and picked up his only two career strikeouts. The game was tied 4-4 in the eighth inning when Jimmie Foxx took Diggs deep for the game-deciding run. Diggs pitched his second complete game but took the loss.

Diggs’s final start came in the next to last game of the season, the second game of a twin bill versus the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth, 39 years old and in his waning days as a Yankee, was on the bench after playing in the first game. As if facing the Yankees wasn’t enough of a challenge, even without Ruth, Diggs did not arrive at Griffith Stadium until game time due to a flat tire.11 He retired Frankie Crosetti to start the game but then allowed singles to Red Rolfe and George Selkirk and a walk to Lou Gehrig to load the bases. Two more walks and an error gave the Yankees a three-run lead. Diggs was pulled after allowing a leadoff hit in the second inning and took the loss to give him a record of 1-2. In 21⅓ innings pitched, he had an ERA of 6.75.

At the Senators’ spring training camp in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1935, Diggs impressed new manager Bucky Harris early on. “Griffith told me this Diggs had a whale of an arm, and I find the boss was right,” said Harris.12 The skipper compared Diggs’s fastball to that of former Senators hurler Firpo Marberry.13 The young pitcher started Washington’s first exhibition game, against Albany. Diggs struggled and allowed seven runs in three innings.14 He displayed “no fast one and lacked control,” wrote one reporter, who also said Harris had changed his tune and was now convinced Diggs “never will make the grade.”15 On March 19, Diggs was sent to the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor-league affiliate of the Senators.

The quick decision to farm out Diggs flummoxed the youngster. Said Diggs, who was quoted in his dialect: “Good gosh, wha’s the matter wi’ the guy? Didn’t I guarantee t’ win at least ten games fer the Washington bunch, and here I am foolin’ around with a second-rate outfit. Gee – I don’t get it!”16 He initially said he would not report to Chattanooga but relented after the veteran McColl gave him some words of advice.17 He barged into Clark Griffith’s hotel room, interrupting his card game, and struck the owner on the chest with the back of his hand while declaring: “Well Griff, I’ve decided to go to Chattanooga.”18

After failing to impress with the Lookouts, Diggs was cut by Chattanooga in early April and sent to Harrisburg of the New York-Pennsylvania League. Diggs reported to Harrisburg and barely a week later was traded to the Albany Senators for catcher Ray Starr. Diggs made a start for Albany on May 9 against Montreal. He allowed five runs in 1⅔ innings and took the loss.19

A few weeks later Diggs landed back in Harrisburg. He made a start on June 1 and allowed three runs but got no run support and took the loss. After two more losses in which he allowed a total of 13 runs, Harrisburg released Diggs. He next surfaced back in Baltimore in August pitching for the Bethlehem Shipbuilders in the Interclub League. His pitching career was over almost as quickly as it began. According to a son, an injury to his pitching arm was a factor in his having to give up the game.20

Diggs married Helen Cicero, and the couple had four children: Barbara, Carol, James, and Reese Jr. He served in the Army in World War II and fought in the campaign in Europe in 1944 and 1945. After his military service, he lived in Baltimore and worked in the seafood business with his brothers. Though he had a gregarious personality, he did not talk much about his brief baseball career and did not follow the game. Diggs battled alcoholism, the effects of which contributed to health problems, and he spent his final years in and out of Veterans Administration hospitals.21 

Reese Diggs died in his sleep on October 30, 1978, at the age of 63. He is buried at Gwynn’s Island Cemetery in Mathews, Virginia.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Reese “Rick” Diggs Jr. for sharing information about his father’s childhood and life after baseball. Photo courtesy of Rick Diggs Jr.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia, Births, 1864-2016.

2 Francis E. Stann, “Diggs May Share M’Coll’s Burden,” Evening Star (Washington DC), September 7, 1934: 39.

3 Stann, “Diggs May Share M’Coll’s Burden.”

4 Francis E. Stann, “Champions’ Slips Aid Pace-Makers,” Evening Star, September 16, 1934: 31.

5  Stann, “Champions’ Slip Aid Pace-Makers.”

6 Wirt Gammon, “Just Between Us Fans,” Chattanooga Daily Times, March 27, 1935: 8.

7 “All Is Forgiven When Diggs, After $4.68 Meal on Nationals, Trounces Tribe in First Start,” Evening Star, September 18, 1934: 13.

8 Stann, “Rook Slabs Well in Tribe’s Defeat,” Evening Star, September 18, 1934: 11.

9 Bill Johnson. “League Park (Cleveland, Ohio),” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/league-park-cleveland/. Accessed December 28, 2020.

10 “All Is Forgiven When Diggs, After $4.68 Meal on Nationals, Trounces Tribe in First Start.”

11 Stann, “Sington, Powell, Cohen Sting Pill,” Evening Star, September 30, 1934: 35.

12 John B. Keller, “Four Youngsters Make Impression,” Evening Star, March 2, 1935: 10.

13 Keller, “Four Youngsters Make Impression.”

14 John B. Keller, “Coppola Is Best in Practice Tilt,” Evening Star, March 16, 1935: 11.

15 Keller, “Pettit, Coppola, Cohen in Battle,” Evening Star, March 19, 1935: 15.

16 Jim Berryman, “Hurlers at Panama City Can’t See How Griff Can Get Along Without ’Em, Nor Can Writer,” Washington Evening Star, March 29, 1935: 51.

17 Gammon, “Just Between Us Fans.”

18 Wilbur Kinley, “Today’s Sports World,” Chattanooga News, March 30, 1935: 12.

19 “Royals Defeat Albany 9-2,” Baltimore Sun, May 10, 1935: 16.

20 Email communication between the author and Reese Diggs Jr., February 11, 2021.

21 Email correspondence with Reese Diggs Jr.